Stainless signed for Atari Arcade titles

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Isle of Wight-based team Stainless has been signed to work on a whole clutch of games for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade platform - namely Atari's range of retro remakes.

The news comes just a week after the studio confirmed that its XBLA title Novadrome has been signed by Buena Vista.

Games in the Atari deal include Centipede, Millipede, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Missile Command, Battlezone, Warlords and Tempest and they start rolling onto the digitial distribution system early next year. Stainless will produce both retro versions and iterations with updated graphics, adding multiplayer to the likes of Battlezone.

The studio was one of the first on Xbox Live Arcade, with its title Crystal Quest sold over the service from day one when the 360 launched a year ago.

Patrick Buckland, CEO of Stainless said: "We are a company of hard-core old-school gamers, so the opportunity to work on these titles is an honour for us. This fits in perfectly with Stainless' strategy of becoming the first port of call for publishers wanting Live Arcade development."

Xbox Live Arcade has cast a long shadow over games development in the UK, with a number of the games launched on the service coming from British studios. At its launch, Stainless' Crystal Quest was joined by Bizarre Creations' Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, which has won a huge level of kudos (including a Develop Award), and PomPom's Mutant Storm Reloaded.

Meanwhile, Team 17 recently completed a version of Worms for the 360's online network. And London-based Curve and Leamington Spa's Blitz recently announced their intentions to make games for the service as well.